Article January 19, 1907 Issue

PROBLEM OF THE AVERAGE BUSINESS MAN

C. W. JENNINGS.

The question as to why the average business man is not reached by the regular orthodox doctrines is one that has troubled religious savants for a long time, and judging by recurring editorials in theological publications, it has not yet been solved. These objects of proselytism do no seem amenable to any of the ordinary influences that are exerted to secure converts, and in the main they have steadfastly and with evident contentment remained outside the fold.

The principal reason for the apparent hopelessness of the endeavor to reach these is that the evangelists do not seem to have acquired a rational comprehension of their attitude, and have nothing to offer them which appeals to their sense of the fitness of things. A business man is not elated over the promise of a heaven which consists largely of hymn-singing and idleness. His life is mentally active, and an existence which has no intellectual exercise, which offers no assured progress as the result of application and energy, seems distasteful to him, or at least is not anticipated with satisfaction. Then again, the man whose success in life depends upon the application of logical thought to daily problems, will not as a rule accept a proposition whose alleged benefits will come only as he accedes to numerous fundamental statements that must be accepted upon "blind faith." He has to know how, and why, and what, with certainty.

Presupposing, however, that the average man maintains an attitude of receptivity toward anything that may be had without changing this order of thought, which is demonstrable here and now, and which will give its great rewards in his present experience, without waiting until he has gone through the mysterious change called death, there is a way open to him. This way is now being traversed by thousands who a few years ago exactly represented the class under discussion; and their daily lives, experiences, and successes are constant proofs of the fact that in their business and out of it they are receiving more blessings than the most enthusiastic exhorter ever promised them for a much-talked-of hereafter.

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